"Wise To Refrain From Name-Calling": Ex-Judges On Amit Shah's Remarks On Opposition's Veep Pick

A group of retired judges has termed Home Minister Amit Shah's attack on opposition vice-presidential candidate B Sudershan Reddy over the Salwa Judum judgement "unfortunate", and said it would be wise to refrain from "name-calling".

The group of 18 retired judges, including the likes of former Supreme Court justices Kurien Joseph, Madan B Lokur and J Chelameswar, also said that "prejudicial misinterpretation" of the top court's verdict by a high political functionary is likely to have a chilling effect on its judges.

Citing the statement of the judges, the Congress slammed the home minister and said there are still people in India courageous enough to call him out.

Mr Shah had accused Mr Reddy, a former judge of the Supreme Court, of "supporting" Naxalism. He had claimed that Left Wing Extremism would have ended by 2020 in the absence of the Salwa Judum judgement.

"The statement of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, publicly misinterpreting the judgment of the Supreme Court in the Salwa Judum case, is unfortunate. The judgment nowhere supports, either expressly or by compelling implication of its text, Naxalism or its ideology," the statement signed by the 18 former judges said.

The former Supreme Court judges who signed the statement are A K Patnaik, Abhay Oka, Gopala Gowda, Vikramjit Sen, Kurien Joseph, Madan B Lokur, and J Chelameswar.

"While the campaign for the office of the Vice-President of India may well be ideological, it can be conducted civilly and with dignity. Criticising the so-called ideology of either candidate should be eschewed," the retired judges said.

"Prejudicial misinterpretation of a judgment of the Supreme Court by a high political functionary is likely to have a chilling effect on the judges of the Supreme Court, shaking the independence of the judiciary," they said.

Out of respect for the office of the Vice President of India, it would be wise to refrain from "name-calling", the retired judges said.

Besides the seven retired judges of the Supreme Court, three former chief justices of High Courts -- Govind Mathur, S. Muralidhar and Sanjib Bannerjee -- also signed the statement. The other signatories to the letter include former judges of high courts Anjana Prakash, C Praveen Kumar, A Gopal Reddy, G Raghuram, K Kannan, K Chandru, B Chandrakumar and Kailash Gambhir. Prof Mohan Gopal and senior advocate Sanjay Hegde also signed the statement.

In a post on X, Congress general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said, "The Union home minister that our country has the great misfortune of having is a two-in-one WMD -- a weapon of malicious defamation as well as a weapon of mischievous distortion. But there are still people in India courageous enough to call him out." He said 20 of the most eminent legal personalities of India, including retired Supreme Court judges, retired chief justices of high courts, and retired judges of high courts -- have now "exposed his lies" about Justice Sudershan Reddy.

Speaking in Kerala on Friday, Mr Shah said, "Sudershan Reddy is the person who helped Naxalism. He gave Salwa Judum judgment. If the Salwa Judum judgment had not been given, the Naxal terrorism would have ended by 2020. He is the person who was inspired by the ideology that gave Salwa Judam judgment." Mr Reddy, on Saturday, said he did not wish to join issues with the home minister, asserting the verdict was not his but that of the Supreme Court. He also said that Mr Shah would not have made the remarks had he read the complete judgment.

He, along with Justice S S Nijjar, was part of an apex court bench that had in July 2011 ordered the disbanding of Salwa Judum, ruling that using tribal youths as Special Police Officers in the fight against Maoist insurgents was illegal and unconstitutional.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)